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U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and rancher Heidi Redd, speak to members of the press Tuesday, May 9, 2017 during a press conference at Dugout Ranch northwest of Monticello, Utah. Jon Austria/The Daily Times

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke walks with rancher Heidi Redd as they prepare to meet the press, Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at Dugout Ranch northwest of Monticello, Utah. Jon Austria/The Daily Times

Rushunda Jim, second from the left, and her sister RueQuanna Jim participate in a rally, Monday, May 8, 2017 put on by Stewards of San Juan County at Centennial Park in Blanding, Utah. Jon Austria/The Daily Times

At center, San Juan County, Utah, Commissioner Bruce Adams talks with opponents of Bears Ears, Monday, May 8, 2017 during a rally put on by Stewards of San Juan County at Centennial Park in Blanding, Utah. Jon Austria/The Daily Times

Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk carrying U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Utah Governor Gary Herbert, U.S. Congressman Rob Bishop of Utah and their entourage fly over Blanding, Utah, on Monday, May 8, 2017, from the Blanding Municipal Airport as they head over the Bears Ears National Monument. Jon Austria/The Daily Times

Utah Governor Gary Herbert, left, and U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke make their way to their press conference, Monday, May 8, 2017 at Butler Wash southwest of Blanding, Utah. Jon Austria/The Daily Times

From left, U.S. Congressman Rob Bishop of Utah, Utah Governor Gary Herbert and U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, prepares to leave, Monday, May 8, 2017 after their tour and press conference held at Butler Wash, southwest of Blanding, Utah. jon Austria/The Daily Times

President Donald Trump holds up a signed proclamation to shrink the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments at the Utah State Capitol Monday, Dec. 4, 2017, in Salt Lake City.(Photo: Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

The public has less than a week left to weigh in before federal land managers start drawing up new plans for the large swaths of Southern Utah lands that President Donald Trump ordered removed from the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

Four months removed from the president’s controversial order, the Bureau of Land Management is working to develop a new set of management plans, despite ongoing lawsuits challenging the order and criticisms from monument supporters who argue the planning process should wait until the court battles are finished.

Scoping meetings were held last month in the four small towns of Kanab, Escalante, Blanding and Bluff, but the public still has a chance to submit written comments online or by submitting them to the BLM offices in Monticello or Kanab, as long as they hit the April 13 deadline.

Political support

State and local elected leaders have all hailed Trump’s order as a victory for Southern Utah’s rural communities, arguing the move would open new avenues to economic growth by overturning federal regulations they deemed unnecessary.

Utah lawmakers have been moving to codify Trump’s decision, with Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart sponsoring a bill to create a 100,000-acre Escalante Canyons National Park, in addition to codifying the two other smaller monuments, on lands that would represent about half of the 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

House Resolution 4532, sponsored by Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, would put into law the reduced Bears Ears monument boundaries ordered by Trump, creating two smaller monuments on about 15 percent of the land that were included in the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears monument. The bill describes the creation of new management councils for a 211,983-acre Shash Jáa monument, as well as an 86,447-acre Indian Creek monument.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, is pushing both Stewart’s and Curtis’s bills, as well as legislation that would significantly reduce the president’s powers to create monuments and ensure future presidents can make significant reductions to monuments already created.

Case not settled

The relatively quick move to draw up new management plans drew criticism from Native American tribes, environmental groups, archaeological societies and others that have challenged the president’s order, with representatives arguing that the BLM could be wasting limited resources.

That only four meetings, all held in smaller southern Utah towns, were held was also a point of contention, given that decisions on monument creation often involved more than a dozen meetings across multiple states, said Nada Culver, senior counsel and director of the Wilderness Society’s BLM Action Center.

By comparison, in one two-month period the Clinton administration hosted 15 meetings across seven states when it was developing plans for the monument at Grand Staircase-Escalante.

“This Administration fails to recognize science, economic impacts, cultural history, or the law when it comes to managing lands already named national monuments,” Culver said in an email.

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Demonstrators gather in Kanab in a hope of garnering the attention of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke during his trip to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Wednesday, May 10, 2017. (Photo: Chris Caldwell / The Spectrum & Daily News)

Comments on the planning process for the Grand Staircase-Escalante area can be submitted online at the BLM's eplanning page, by email at BLM_UT_CCD_Monuments@BLM.gov, or by mail at 669 S. U.S. 89, Kanab, UT 84741. Comments on the Bears Ears area are also available via the eplanning page, by emailing BLM_UT_monticello_monuments@blm.gov, or by mail to P.O. Box 7, Monticello, UT 84535.